Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[notabitail]

Twofer, a butterbird and Ric Flair
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Tricksy is so precious
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Hubby says he sees red wattles.
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I uh...fell through a deck today and really messed my knee up. Of course, it's the one that's already been giving me problems.
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The offending board. It's at my parent's house so thankfully dad will get it fixed right up ASAP. Hubby made me put a knee brace on and now that I'm done with chores for a while I will rest it up on the beanbag.

I hope your knee gets better soon.

Also, that leaf in the lower left corner of the photo of the board looks like a chicken foot. I thought for a bit that you had used one of those AI object removing tools.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

How are you and your girls doing?

Everybody’s still here, doing pretty well. All chickens alive and apparently healthy. Caught a northern fowl mites infestation very early, nipped it in the bud with two permethrin spray applications on the birds, a thorough coop spray wash & application and an under-coop litter clean out & application. I got mites on me twice when I handled Anna, and no one else. Never saw any in all my examinations anywhere except on me. I even suspected wooden deck boards at one point. Can they live there? Anyway, no recurrence yet. Did you know that you can dustbathe right after a mite spraying / massage that has you soaked to the skin, appear very muddy from all that kicking and rolling around in the dirt while wet, yet within hours look pristine again? Only chickens can do this. It is like a trip to the salon. I tried and it doesn’t work on humans! A shower for me, thank you.

I’m busy, but the editing/proofreading task is on a break, I finished the pass of my older sister’s latest mystery book, so while my project manager other sister gets the previous book out for printing I am free to roam FBA. My author sister is at a great point health-wise; her stem-the-tide last ditch chemo has been working! She’ll be on it until it doesn’t work anymore, hopefully at least several more months. Her quality of life is way better now too, that’s what counts.

The heat and humidity - sometimes 96% humidity! - is the biggest news chicken-wise. I think the heat is harder on the Buff Orpingtons than the Buckeyes. Maybe the BO’s are fluffier, the Buckeyes feathers look tighter, even their thighs don’t have the intense thick fluff the BO’s have. And they are older, less active. The frame size makes a difference. Popcorn, quite a big gal, was wing spreading along with the BO’s.

They were able to hang out in shade and lie on cool earth during the hottest parts of the day. I dampened the run litter and the dust bath, and generously sprayed the uncovered yard parts of the run with a cold-water hose. I have shade tarps strategically placed, they let some breeze through but block direct sun. They did fine except when confined in the coop at night. So I installed fans, and I tried ice bags too. The fans are very effective. Three rechargeable fans. Two small fans clipped and pointing out the upper vents helping to push the air out the back. Then a bigger fan underneath.

To assist their wing-spreading strategy I placed this 8” fan pointing up through the modified and predator-hardened poop tray (I cut a large hole and zip tied hardware cloth onto it. Also placed a mosquito netting on it except for the hottest nights). It gently blew on low usually; a few nights I had it on medium. I looked at them from under there, up through the roost bars, and found they positioned themselves right over the gentle breeze, so that was reassuring. Also a nice fluffy butt view for me, seeing their tootsies curled around the bars and their fluffy pantaloon feathers wafting in the breeze. Interestingly never got any poop on the fan, the hardware cloth caught it, and they seemed to have their chests over the fan mostly.

The second thing I did was open the back coop door during the day, to help it cool down before their evening roost and for when they were in there laying their eggs during the day. Recall there’s aviary netting over this whole area, plus a rain tarp high above the coop that blocks some view, so I felt it was secure enough, and I hung dark mosquito screening across it for any biting bugs and a flap of cloth over the top half too. So that let the coop air equal the evening air before roosting time.

Here's Anna, she is a really sweet hen, talkative, and very calm to handle - recall she was terribly sick at 7-8 weeks, which may account for that. She likes standing on my leg and getting pet. She tells me all the news then.
Plus she's got quite a jaunty comb!

 

[Ponypoor]

Thanks Kelly. That's eased my mind a little. She has also started moulting and wasn't at all her perky self today

Yep moulting also causes poopies.

My crew is all in various stages of moulting.

 

[notabitail]

Yep moulting also causes poopies.

My crew is all in various stages of moulting.

I just found out Felicitas is molting. That would explain why her butt fluff came off so easily when I tried cleaning it (she has a ton of it and doesn't lean back while pooping that much).

 

[featherhead007]

My thoughts exactly. @RebeccaBoyd you can consult a personal injury lawyer about it and see what they say. It will be a free consult, and that person can start to make inquiries. If nothing legal comes from it, it still may move “Fight Central” and the community and school board to make changes.
No need to feel hesitant about consulting someone - you can be sure the school and school board consulted their own legal teams within hours of the incident. The principal’s rude behaviour and lack of substantive comment sounded to me like their legal defense is already underway. It may be that the board hired this bully because he’s good at getting others to back down. The school nickname tells us this is not the first incident they’ve worked to brush off.

Hello everybody!

Hi CB

 

[featherhead007]

We played phone tag with the county attorney's office, sheriffs office and county clerks office this afternoon to get the information needed to bring up charges. The county attorney's office had already heard about the fight. We finally got to speak to the right person and we were emailed what we needed to fill out to take to them. They just called back with wonderful news. We have to do NOTHING!! The sheriff who is at the school just filed charges against her for assault personally. They could not tell us more where the girl is a minor but she said this was the best thing that could happen. This has more pull then if I and the boys parents had filed personally. She did recommend we at least consult with a lawyer as we were planning on doing as well.

I’d still consult with my own lawyer about this

 

[Ponypoor]

My thoughts exactly. @RebeccaBoyd you can consult a personal injury lawyer about it and see what they say. It will be a free consult, and that person can start to make inquiries. If nothing legal comes from it, it still may move “Fight Central” and the community and school board to make changes.
No need to feel hesitant about consulting someone - you can be sure the school and school board consulted their own legal teams within hours of the incident. The principal’s rude behaviour and lack of substantive comment sounded to me like their legal defense is already underway. It may be that the board hired this bully because he’s good at getting others to back down. The school nickname tells us this is not the first incident they’ve worked to brush off.

Hello everybody!

Well hello back at ya!!!

 

[Ponypoor]

Tax: Diane Ida-Biter, looking for a fight after instigating one with a hard peck on my arm. She found the cellphone pretty annoying, needing a good peck too. But here she's scoping out another arm peck
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I have so missed your antics Diana Ida-Biter you are looking ever so lovely too!

 

[Ponypoor]

13+yrs saga cont'd...

(2018) There's enough sorrow losing our Dominique OPAL in July from heatstroke. Then our two remaining Dominiques got Bumblefoot. First DANA in August ~ she had surgery at the vet's ofc so she was recuperating in-house for a couple months to keep the daily bandages clean. Dana had bumblefoot in both pads which an injury is usually one foot only so the vet suspected the roosting perch was the problem & should be padded softer for chicken feet.
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Then a couple months later our other Dominique JEWLZ got Bumblefoot (WTH?) & we made another trip to the vet w/a different bumblefoot case & again the vet asked if we had padded the roost perch! We already had the perch padded w/soft stretch wide Ace bandage wrap the whole length of the perch so we were puzzled at why the bumblefoot?! W/ Jewlz the vet did not do surgery but instructed us how to treat it ourselves at home.
JEWLZ
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What a frustrating experience having one recuperating Dom finally returned outdoors only to have a 2nd Dom hen to treat for a few weeks more indoors.

CHAR the Breda hen continued being obnoxious toward little Silkie VIOLET but there was at least one Dominique protecting Violet from Char while each Dominique had turns recuperating indoors!

VIOLET & CHAR~this counts as 2fer Tues right?

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Meanwhile I was still gardening and working on expanding the chicken yard while nursing house hens!

Hen yard in 2018
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View attachment 3917905 I can relate to people building coops, runs, & yards for their chickens & how slow the work goes! It never ends!

It's 2024 now & still modifications continue! Will show progress pics later.

...to be cont'd...

Wow you have done a lot to your yard! It looks amazing now!

 

[Ponypoor]

More pictures I tookView attachment 3918005View attachment 3918006View attachment 3918008View attachment 3918009View attachment 3918011

Congratulations on POW another amazing photo